There are some series that thrive on innovation, and some that are at their best when they stick to what works. Gears of War very much sits in the latter camp.
Xbox’s action series has never really dipped to the point where it’s ever had a truly bad game, but on the rare occasions where players have pointed out things they weren’t so sure about, it’s been when the game strayed away from the tried-and-tested formula.
One of the most notable examples of this is Gears 5’s open-world sections, where players drive through large expanses in the Skiff, a sort of wind-powered sled. While some liked the change of pace, others found these open areas lacking in content, and felt they distracted too much from the more linear combat Gears is usually known for.
With Gears of War: E-Day, developer The Coalition is mostly trying to bring things back to basics. While it does still try to tinker with the formula to some extent – there are still open-world sections, but they’re not as extreme, which I’ll get to – the majority of the game sticks to the classic Gears action fans of the series expect.
As the name suggests, E-Day is a prequel which takes place 14 years before the events of the first game. It shows what happened during Emergence Day – when the Locust Horde first attacked from under the ground – and how the recently demobilised Marcus and Dom, home after the end of the Pendulum Wars, cope with the new threat.
On paper, there’s more to it than that. As has already been revealed in previous Gears games, Dom’s brother (and Marcus’s best friend) Carlos died right as the Pendulum Wars ended, and because this is a recent event in this game – rather than something that happened a decade and a half ago – Dom and Marcus are still coming to terms with their loss.
Xbox previously hinted that the game would show Marcus and Dom being emotionally distant from each other due to Carlos’s death, and that the Emergence would force them to reluctantly team up again.
In my brief hands-on with the game last month I wrote: “As much as Gears of War: E-Day is going to be about the arrival of the Locust, it’s also going to be about how these two emotionally distant soldiers, joined by grief for the same person but also kept apart by it, will eventually form the bond we see in later games.”
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://www.videogameschronicle.com/review/gears-of-war-e-day-campaign-review/
